Steve Traill wrote:When I spoke to Steve some months ago he did say that the tender taps did let the side down and that when he gets a chance he would do something different. It is the only part on the whole engine that looks wrong and as this is a flagship product for STW I doubt if they will continue with the present 'Horses Willy' tender taps. I for one look forward to version II of the tender taps.

O Dear.

Just ordered new ones from Heritage supplies along with cylinder steam oil.

Steve Traill wrote:When I spoke to Steve some months ago he did say that the tender taps did let the side down and that when he gets a chance he would do something different. It is the only part on the whole engine that looks wrong and as this is a flagship product for STW I doubt if they will continue with the present 'Horses Willy' tender taps. I for one look forward to version II of the tender taps.

O Dear.

Just ordered new ones from Heritage supplies along with cylinder steam oil.

Steve Traill wrote:When I spoke to Steve some months ago he did say that the tender taps did let the side down and that when he gets a chance he would do something different. It is the only part on the whole engine that looks wrong and as this is a flagship product for STW I doubt if they will continue with the present 'Horses Willy' tender taps. I for one look forward to version II of the tender taps.

O Dear.

Just ordered new ones from Heritage supplies along with cylinder steam oil.

Not a very good picture this as taken on the phone but I thought I would try a bit of lining tonight. Will now start the lining and gold leaf to the front end at the weekend if the weather is bad and I can't get the tender and belly tank sprayed.

Thanks Lynn, no I'm using Craftmaster's lining paints at the moment. The lining paints though don't keep a wet edge for long so you need to get the second coat on, and tapes off a bit quicker than with 1shot. (either that or where I did it in the house it was warmer than the studio the other week so it dried quicker)

Using Craftmaster it's the same paint system throughout and there will be no comparability problems. Which I have suffered from in past projects.

Robfishman wrote:If anyone else is thinking of ordering the try cocks from Herritage Steam hold fire for a few days.....

Will update more once I have spoken to them, what I have seen today is not the same design I saw on the stand at GDSF which were perfect for the job.

I have the ones from Live steam models and they work well.they are long enough to miss the brake bar when in use.They also don't look out of scale although they are much bigger than the ones supplied from STW.

Robfishman wrote:If anyone else is thinking of ordering the try cocks from Herritage Steam hold fire for a few days.....

Will update more once I have spoken to them, what I have seen today is not the same design I saw on the stand at GDSF which were perfect for the job.

I have the ones from Live steam models and they work well.they are long enough to miss the brake bar when in use.They also don't look out of scale although they are much bigger than the ones supplied from STW.

Nick

I have spoken with Heritage Steam. Taps are going back in the post tomorrow for a refund. They do not have anything else. The ones seen by others were supplied by a company now defunct.

Well I am still waiting to receive tender try taps from STW as they were not available when the tender bits kit arrived last November, so will wait until I see what they send before thinking about alternatives.Ian

Lining out is very time consuming, but also very therapeutic. Its surprising just how many lines there are in even a simple detail. Not even half way through the perch, pivot and front axel and already 40 lines done.

Edit - Last count to complete these parts will need -

48 on axel. 8 done12 on pivot. 12 done12 on perch. 6 done40 on front springs. 14 done but only 5 are acceptable, rest to be redone now I found the best way to produce them.

After two weeks of nothing but holding a paint bursh the lining of the perch, pivot, and axel is now complete. Having painted each of the springs I decided I didn't like the effect, so they are back to the main engine colour.

Images to follow tomorrow when last few lines are dry and it's refixed to the smoke box. Also bumped into Miss Wizz and her father today at a very busy Twyford Waterworks with their engines, a lovely day and the rain stayed away. A few photos will follow shortly.

I think it may be a while, my other passion is Photography and I have my RPS images to prepare over the next few weeks so there won't be much time to spend on the build

However once done it will be all systems go and should take no more than a week or two to complete and to paint this and the top coat of the belly tank. After that its back out with the lining brushes to line both these and the bowser tank.

Only joking, the lining and paint work look brill, I am sure you mentioned you were not too sure about the blue at first but the lining makes the blue the right choice for your engine. It will be a very impressive looking engine when finished, love the finish on the smoke box. The good thing about being behind is that you don't have to weight for kits.

You are correct the yellow line is not quite straight but close enough I don't think it will notice especially as its at the back of the axil....at least that's what I thought lol.

The lighter blue does work better than expected as they are only narrow I didn't think they would be visible. For anyone else using the Ex-Mayor blue the lighter blue i used is Craftmasters French Blue. I was also pleased with the finish on the smoke box, the chimney is the same and look great. However the little top extension is not so good and will be stripped and refinished later on. I damaged the paint fitting the copper cap and although I rubbed it down and refinished it I can see where it was.

The paint used for this is really good and easy to apply. It's the black VHT paint from Frost, the only down side is every time I have gone to order a tin it's out of stock so it's either very popular or they only hold a small supply or both.

There are a few advantages to following up from behind, but like everyone we also have to sometimes wait for parts to come in for the kits, however we are able to juggle things a bit so for example we have had the tender and belly tank early, but am missing a rear wheel at the moment not that I mind as they do take up quire a bit of room in the house

I was only joking I could not see if the lines are straight or not. When I took my engine to the 3 greyhounds I was looking at all my mistakes and not one person noticed them till I was showing someone. Even then they said they were small. One of the guys told me if someone gets that close to your engine and picks up mistakes ask them to look closely at the injector or inside the smoke box and he would bet that they did not have an engine or could do the work themselves.

Looking forward to a good weekend so I can get top coat on the bowser tank (long storey) and belly tank on Saturday (bound to be raining sat Sun and Mon). Not sure the tender beading will be finished in time for top coat but will give it a good go.